the tribune then appeared in the assembly as the accuser.[668] The right of eliciting formal resolutions from the Plebs (_jus cum plebe agendi_) belonged exclusively to the plebeian magistrates. The tribunes alone had the presidency of the _concilium_, but here again the growth of popular jurisdiction rendered it necessary that the plebeian aediles should defend their sentences before the Plebs.[669] (iii.) _Powers exercised in connexion with the Senate._—The right of bringing matters before the Senate (_jus cum patribus agendi, consulendi senatus, referendi ad senatum_) is one that runs parallel to the right of transacting business with the Populus, and, as such, it is attributed by Cicero[670] to the same magistrates—to the consuls and praetors, the dictator, magister equitum, and interrex. It of necessity attached to the consular tribunes of early times, and was one of the attributes of the _praefectus urbi_.[671] This right necessarily did not attach originally to the tribunes of the Plebs, for they were first the outcome of a revolution, and then for centuries the presidents of a corporation independent of the people. But, after the _lex Hortensia_ had made the _concilium plebis_ one of the legislative organs of the community, it would have been dangerous to senatorial government to deny the president of this assembly the right of consulting the Senate.[672] The admission of the tribunes into the circle of the magistrates with the _jus consulendi_ was one of the conditions of the Senate’s permanent control over initiative in legislation.